STEMIE Coalition

NICEE

“If invention is a pebble tossed in the pond, innovation is the rippling effect that pebble causes. Someone has to toss the pebble. That’s the inventor. Someone has to recognize the ripple will eventually become a wave. That’s the entrepreneur.” — Tom Grasty, PBS Idea Lab

NICEE 2018: Judge Registration

NICEE 2018 Judge Registration

We need your help to encourage young students across the country to move toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and entrepreneurial endeavors.

We are inviting friends, colleagues, and all supporters of young inventors and entrepreneurs to volunteer a few hours of their time to judge kids’ inventions for the following opportunities:

Independent Inventor Competition (feeder program to NICEE).

For the 2018 National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo (NICEE) for young inventors in Grades K-12.

We have both online and in-person judging opportunities available. We welcome you to participate in one or both opportunities! We need to recruit 200 online judges and 200 event judges this year, so we could use your help getting the word out! If you know someone who might enjoy fostering invention and innovation in America, simply forward this web page link so that they can register too: http://www.stemie.org/2018-nicee/nicee-2018-judge-registration/

No prior judging experience is necessary. Many of our judge participants at the local competition level have included patent attorneys, engineers, product managers, inventors, startup entrepreneurs, marketers, educators/professors, technicians, musicians, architects, and a whole host of other occupations. Anyone can judge–no specific technical, legal, or other specific business background is required.

Online Judges:

The online adjudication is a crucial part of the NICEE judging process. The Independent Inventor and grade K-2 scores are determined via the online judging process. Online judging also provides a portion of the total score for the grade 3-12 submissions. More than one judge reviews each submission.

What do you have to do? Online Judges are asked to review and score invention entries and share a little feedback to help the students improve their product, process, or presentation.

What’s your time commitment? It’s all online so you can review your assigned entries at your convenience during the judging window. It may take you 6-10 minutes to review and score each entry. When you register as an online judge you will be asked to indicate the number of entries you are available to review and score. Online judging will begin as early as April 1 and will be assigned as the registrations come in. Online judging registration closes May 2, with online judging concluding shortly after.

Event Judges:

If you will be in the Dearborn, Michigan area could you invest a few hours on Friday, June 1, 2018 from 10:30 am to 3:00pm at The Henry Ford Museum of Innovation, 20900 Oakwood Blvd, Dearborn, MI 48124 to support a child’s interest in becoming an inventor, engineer, or entrepreneur?

Lunch will be provided on Friday during training and The Henry Ford Museum has generously provided complimentary passes for all judges to:

Children’s lives are forever changed by having learned to think critically, creatively, and commercially to solve their very own real problems.

Just a few hours of your time can help make a difference for these kids.

“I have been judging the CT Invention Convention (CIC) for seven years, and keep coming back so that I can, during the Judging Circles, tell the students to think of their invention as not just a one-time task. I encourage them to consider STEM as a future career option. I am proud to report that at least four of the CIC students in the past 10 years have received patents, and several of them have started businesses to produce their products. I think that I am making a positive impact on these students’ lives. You can too!” — Henry Link, MIT Alumnus

More Info

2018 National InventionConvention

The Henry Ford Museum, May 31 - June 2: We are bringing 500 student inventors and entrepreneurs to Dearborn, Michigan to showcase their innovative ideas!

Each student is a winner of their underlying state-level competition, and their state's representative of thousands of kids who each year learn core invention and entrepreneurship skills in their K-12 schools.